Employee Workplace Innovation
Lesson 1.1 Workplace Innovation by Employees
What is Workplace Innovation?
Please take a minute to think of what words comes to your mind when you think of Workplace Innovation.
A closer look at the definition of “innovation” at the organizational level shows an expectation of a successful outcome which takes the form of product, process, position or paradigm innovation. This results in gaining a competitive advantage or market share, hence, we often hear that organizations need to innovate to survive in today’s competitive environments. Nevertheless, focusing on innovation beyond economical or market gain directs us to view innovation as a social process, through which employees can improve the quality of their own work-life and add value through improved performance towards the organizational mission.
We’ll use the term Workplace Innovation to refer to Workplace Innovation led by employees (as it used in Europe):
Workplace Innovation is the employee-led social process of mobilising new ideas to create better work (Carey, 2017). The twin goals of employee Workplace Innovation are to improve both the quality of work-life for employees and organizational performance for employers (Totterdill, 2020).
“Workplace Innovation is defined as a social process which shapes work organisation and working life, combining their human, organisational and technological dimensions. Examples include participative job design, self-organised teams, continuous improvement, high involvement innovation and employee involvement in corporate decision making. Such interventions are highly participatory, integrating the knowledge, experience and creativity of management and employees at all levels of the organisation in a process of co-creation and co-design.” Dortmund Brussels Position Paper on Workplace Innovation (Dhondt et al, 2012, p. 2).
Application of Theory Here are two illustrations of how to engage employees in workplace innovation, followed by a question to test your understanding of similarities and differences in the two examples.
- Please read this article, or see the embedded video link [NewTab] on the application of workplace innovation produced by Euronews in 2015 tells the story of Arginta Engineering, an integrated manufacturing company in Europe, and how they incorporated workplace innovation practices at the individual, organizational and process levels to improve their workers’ engagement and commitment as well as the quality of their offerings. Please take a few minutes to read it through.
- Another example of workplace innovation implementation is the effort by the UK’s Met Office – Britain’s central Weather agency – to initiate a culture of innovation within their workplace. Watch this video [New Tab] developed by EUWIN in 2015 for more details. (video transcript available[NewTab])
A closer look at the two cases (The Met Office and Arginta) reveals that different approaches have been adopted for engagement with workplace innovation. In the case of Arginta, a top-down approach to implementation of workplace innovation practices has been adopted, whereas in The Met Office, a group of innovative employees decided to initiate a culture of innovation within their workplace.
Test your knowledge
What was the common denominator in both cases (The Met Office and Arginta), without which workplace innovation would be less likely to happen?
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- management support
- innovative managers
- centre for research and development
- innovative employees
Management support. As you can see in both cases, management support and involvement are deemed key to implementation. Further, both cases reflect the efforts to engage employees. One way to improve employee satisfaction and engagement is through Job Crafting which we will discuss in the next section.
Other answers: Consider the key element (a person? A team?) to allow change within any organization and try again!
Components of Workplace Innovation
Workplace Innovation Europe identifies the following four components of workplace innovation:
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- employee-driven innovation and improvement,
- jobs, teams & technology
- organizational structures, management and procedures,
- co-created leadership and employee voice
When integrated together, these four components will lead to effective workplace innovation for organizational and employee value. This short animated video by Workplace Innovation Europe (EUWIN) explains how all of these fit together. (They label this integration as the “5th Element” of employee workplace innovation.)
The first component above, employee-driven innovation and improvement is the focus of our modules. However, the capability you develop in this course can only create value when the organizational context encourages, supports and recognizes innovative employee behaviour.
Workplace Innovation is a Social Process
Workplace innovation is a continuous process and results in improved organizational performance and quality of life (EC, 2020). Rather than looking for a one-size-fits-all specification of ‘workplace innovation’, we are better served by thinking about workplace innovation as a process with key characteristics that will look different depending on context. We are calling this a ‘social process’ and as we will see below, the ‘social’ aspect is critical because workplace innovation is not about a ‘lone inventor’ sitting in a vacuum coming up with good ideas, but a process of refining, testing, and working those ideas with a collective and then putting those ideas to work.
You should note that the use of “Workplace Innovation” as defined above originated in Europe. In North America, you will also find organizations using that same phrase with a different meaning: innovation in workspace design which often encourages more employee-led innovation. For example, see this promotional video by Dell Careers which illustrates Dell’s approach to fostering employee creativity through workspace innovation with new physical spaces promoting collaboration and flexibility.
Finally, it’s important to note that Workplace Innovation is a team sport: the image we might have of ‘the lone inventor’ is replaced by a team of people who apply their different skills, perspectives, and ways of thinking to create the better work result. In the process, the team typically creates new knowledge. That knowledge can be related to the context of our particular workplace or organisation; it can also have larger impacts when our team comes up with new ideas of broader applicability. Thus, a defining characteristic of workplace innovation as we are describing here is the direct involvement of the workforce in carrying out – and being responsible for – the process of mobilising new ideas to create better work. The collective is key!
In addition to creating an environment that fosters creativity and innovation, some organizations allow their employees to follow through with larger entrepreneurial ventures. When such ventures are being developed within an organization they are often referred to as “corporate entrepreneurship” or “intrapreneurship”.